Foldable vehicle seats for providing more vehicle interior space and facilitating the loading and unloading of passengers are known in the art.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-210009 discloses a folding seat apparatus in which the seatback is tilted forward so as to springably reposition the seat cushion and to slidably reposition the seat.
In accordance with this seat apparatus, the reclining mechanism of the seatback is operated to unlock the seatback and tilt the seatback forward. The pop-up mechanism of the seat cushion and the slide mechanism of the seat are unlocked by tilting the seatback forward.
When the pop-up mechanism is unlocked, the seat cushion pops upward due to the spring force of a pop-up spring. The seatback and seat cushion are thereby folded into a mutually erect orientation.
The folded seat can be slidably moved toward the front of the vehicle because the slide mechanism is unlocked when the seat is tilted.
More vehicle interior space can be obtained and the loading and unloading of passengers can be facilitated by folding the seat in this manner.
However, the folding seat apparatus can potentially be made even easier to use because the reclining mechanism is manually unlocked.
It is possible to consider a method in which the seat is automatically folded as a way to make the apparatus easier to use.
In this case, when the seat is to be folded, the seatback is first tilted forward, the seat cushion pops up, and the seatback and seat cushion are folded into a mutually erect orientation.
Next, the folded seat is slidably moved in the forward direction of the vehicle.
In other words, the slide mechanism must be unlocked later than the reclining mechanism and the pop-up mechanism in order to automate the folding of the seat.
Thus, an actuator for unlocking the slide mechanism lock and an actuator for unlocking the pop-up mechanism lock must be separately provided in order to delay the unlocking of the slide lock.
For this reason, a plurality of actuators is required in order to automatically fold the seat, and this fact may become an obstacle to reducing costs and making the system more lightweight.
In view of the above, there is a need for a folding seat apparatus in which a seat can be automatically folded and the number of actuators reduced.